Why your current members are your best tools for getting new ones
A membership should be used. Much like joining a gym, becoming a member of an association offers you an enormous range of opportunities and benefits; if you actively use them. If you don’t hit the gym on a regular basis, you won’t see any results. That means a healthy membership demands consistent exercise by actively […]
How to practice strategic thinking
“It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” — The Red Queen, Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass Becoming a strategic thinker is not as difficult as it sounds. Although if we’re not careful, […]
What do shared values tell us about our members?
The association space is distinctly diverse with membership comprising a huge variety of industries, each with their specific concerns, priorities and struggles. Yet we all share the mutual goal of understanding, engaging, and communicating with our members. While it is important to attend to the differences that make your association, and its members, unique, there is […]
Why your association shouldn’t build its own tech
For most associations, doing business as usual is no longer an option, and the world is becoming much more competitive. Generating revenue from non-traditional sources has become integral to an association’s success, and we must use advanced and innovative tech solutions to meet these needs. Despite being in an era that demands novelty and greater […]
How a book club helped our company culture
Knowledge is a specific and unique resource in that it can be shared without depleting and increase in value the more widely it is distributed. I introduced a book club to our office when I was CEO of Aptify, compiling a bookshelf of books aimed specifically at professional development within the world of business and […]
Will AI be able to help us be more creative?
Creativity and innovation are two of the most powerful buzzwords in contemporary culture. We push ourselves on a personal level to think differently and to imagine new landscapes in which to work, invent and produce. We also strive at a company level to be new, to be singular and to stand out – and in […]
How to secretly break down organizational silos
If you’ve been in the association world for any length of time, you’ve probably experienced the silo mentality that exists in many organizations. Although some associations have found ways to succeed despite a siloed structure, the vast majority are limiting their true potential and impact by continuing to rest in the status quo. What if […]
3 key takeaways from Sarah Sladek
Disruption is a scary word. And the landscape of the new Talent Economy is definitely a disruptive one: As a culture into which the newest – and largest – generation in the workforce has been born and raised, however, it is equally as dangerous to ignore it. Sarah Sladek argues that the refusal of some organizations […]
So you want a more engaging organization? Design one
Professor Don Norman, the director of the Design Lab at the University of California, has a fascinating Ted Talk in which he argues that “pleasant things work better.” Being positively affected by the design of an object triggers your creative thinking, which in turn helps the object’s usability; you are in a better position to […]
How do you measure meeting success?
Back in October 2015, I wrote an article on the seven purposes of a meeting. I argued, with the cost and effort for any meeting to be organized, it behooves us as professional planners to ensure the purposes behind bringing people together to remain at the forefront of all we do. I had an opportunity […]